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Old 07-17-2013, 05:11 PM   #2 (permalink)
RedDevil
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Location: Nieuwegein, the Netherlands
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Red Devil - '11 Honda Insight Elegance
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My tiny mod, the wing-shaped antenna stalk, generated a couple of fails:
- Make sure your mods don't deform under mild pressure e.g. circumstances you can expect in real life. (winglet mark 1 deformed and split open)
- Don't ever try to speed up glue bonding in an oven, not even at very mild temperatures, unless all materials used explicitly need that kind of treatment. (winglet 2 deformed just enough to be useless in the process)
- Make sure that whatever you fix to your car is secure enough to not come off on the highway. (winglet 3 flew off and landed on the highway, making a big rig behind me slam the brakes - for less than 1 gram worth of clear plastic... !!! ???)

You should take extra care with pizza pans and other aero covers. Rule of thumb; they should be fastened so sturdily that you cannot pull it off again even when using full force. Every square inch can generate a pound of force pulling on it at highway spreeds.
Aerial winglet 3, though tiny, was so tight that I had to use a lot of force to push it over the antenna stalk. It came off at 55 mph nonetheless. But I was happy; it did prove my point that the drag on the stalk was substantial, and so would any mod reducing that.

Don't put a hair drier under your hood. It might cause a fire. It did not on mine, but it did not heat the engine either, at least the effect was minimal. A block heater might work. A hair drier though wastes just too much heating everything else under the hood but the engine.
It did melt the snow on the hood, but I can just wipe that off anyway.
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2011 Honda Insight + HID, LEDs, tiny PV panel, extra brake pad return springs, neutral wheel alignment, 44/42 PSI (air), PHEV light (inop), tightened wheel nut.
lifetime FE over 0.2 Gmeter or 0.13 Mmile.


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For education go to people unlike yourself.

Last edited by RedDevil; 07-17-2013 at 05:18 PM..
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